Browsing by Author "Dharmendra Kumar Maurya"

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Dogs as Reservoirs for Leishmania donovani, Bihar, India, 2018–2022
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2024) Anurag Kumar Kushwaha; Ashish Shukla; Breanna M. Scorza; Rahul Chaubey; Dharmendra Kumar Maurya; Tulika Kumari Rai; Shyamali Yaduvanshi; Shweta Srivastava; Gaetano Oliva; Epke A. Le Rutte; Rajiv Kumar; Om Prakash Singh; Puja Tiwary; Shakti Kumar Singh; Scott A. Bernhardt; Phillip Lawyer; Edgar Rowton; Christine A. Petersen; Shyam Sundar
Visceral leishmaniasis derived from Leishmania donovani is transmitted by sand flies (Phlebotomus argentipes) throughout the Indian subcontinent. Although considered anthroponotic, L. donovani infects other mammals susceptible to sand fly bites, including dogs. Aggressive strategies to reduce sand fly populations in India have led to flies seeking nonhuman hosts, so understanding the role of dogs in L. donovani transmission has become critical. Our study investigated L. donovani infection in dogs and the potential for such infections to be transmitted back to sand flies. We performed xenodiagnosis by using P. argentipes on dogs (n = 73) with quantitative PCR–detectible parasitemia in both endemic and outbreak villages. We found that 12% (9/73) of dogs were infectious to sand flies during winter and rainy seasons. Patients with visceral leishmaniasis remain primary sources of L. donovani transmission, but our findings suggest a possible link between canine infection and human exposure. © 2024 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All rights reserved.
Leishmania Proteomics: Insight into Diagnostics and Vaccine Development
(Springer Nature, 2024) Dharmendra Kumar Maurya; Shyamali; Shyam Lal Mudavath; Shyam Sundar; Om Prakash Singh
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a life-threatening parasitic disease in the Indian subcontinent, is caused by the protozoan parasites-Leishmania donovani and transmitted by the bite of the Phlebotomus sand fly. These parasites have adopted many invasion mechanisms to survive the host’s direct immune responses and established themselves in the host cells. Although efforts have been made to develop sensitive biomarkers for diagnosis and effective vaccines for VL treat-ment, we still need to achieve these goals with great success. Advances in various proteomic platforms have allowed us to identify large numbers of surface and cytosolic proteins from mixed stages of the Leishmania life cycle, which can be manipulated as a diagnostic marker or can be used as vaccine candidates. In this review, we highlight the proteins in amastigote and promastigote forms of Leish-mania parasite and discuss their potential implications in future diagnostic and vaccine development. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.
Livestock and rodents within an endemic focus of Visceral Leishmaniasis are not reservoir hosts for Leishmania donovani
(Public Library of Science, 2022) Anurag Kumar Kushwaha; Ashish Shukla; Breanna M. Scorza; Tulika Kumari Rai; Rahul Chaubey; Dharmendra Kumar Maurya; Shweta Srivastva; Shreya Upadhyay; Abhishek Kumar Singh; Paritosh Malviya; Om Prakash Singh; Vivek Kumar Scholar; Puja Tiwary; Shakti Kumar Singh; Phillip Lawyer; Edgar Rowton; Scott A. Bernhardt; Christine A. Petersen; Shyam Sundar
Leishmaniasis on the Indian subcontinent is thought to have an anthroponotic transmission cycle. There is no direct evidence that a mammalian host other than humans can be infected with Leishmania donovani and transmit infection to the sand fly vector. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of sand fly feeding on other domestic species and provide clinical evidence regarding possible non-human reservoirs through experimental sand fly feeding on cows, water buffalo goats and rodents. We performed xenodiagnosis using colonized Phlebotomus argentipes sand flies to feed on animals residing in villages with active Leishmania transmission based on current human cases. Xenodiagnoses on mammals within the endemic area were performed and blood-fed flies were analyzed for the presence of Leishmania via qPCR 48hrs after feeding. Blood samples were also collected from these mammals for qPCR and serology. Although we found evidence of Leishmania infection within some domestic mammals, they were not infectious to vector sand flies. Monitoring infection in sand flies and non-human blood meal sources in endemic villages leads to scientific proof of exposure and parasitemia in resident mammals. Lack of infectiousness of these domestic mammals to vector sand flies indicates that they likely play no role, or a very limited role in Leishmania donovani transmission to people in Bihar. Therefore, a surveillance system in the peri-/post-elimination phase of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) must monitor absence of transmission. Continued surveillance of domestic mammals in outbreak villages is necessary to ensure that a non-human reservoir is not established, including domestic mammals not present in this study, specifically dogs. © 2022 Kushwaha et al.
Vaccine human clinical trial
(Elsevier, 2022) Bhawana Singh; Shyamali; Dharmendra Kumar Maurya; Rajiv Kumar; Shashi Bhushan Chauhan; Shyam Lal Mudavath; Ram Niwas Meena; Shyam Sundar; Om Prakash Singh
Globally incidence of infectious diseases has declined over the past decades, but still, they continue to have major public health and economic costs. Treatment of infectious diseases is complicated by patients’ late presentation at an advanced stage of their illness. Other challenges include high cost of treatment (drug and hospitalization) and increasing drug resistance. Because of this lack of effective, affordable, minimally toxic drug therapies, an effective vaccine to control infectious diseases is needed. The development of a prophylactic vaccine would prove to be the most effective strategy of disease control and one of the most cost-effective investments in the health sector. However, each newly developed vaccine needs to be evaluated for safety, immunogenicity, and prophylactic efficacy in humans before it is licensed for public use. In this book chapter, we discuss the key elements that should be considered to conduct the vaccine clinical trials against infectious diseases including COVID-19. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.